2021 Winner:
Nina Jany  (2021). The “Economic Battle” Now and Then: (E)valuation Patterns of Distributive Justice in Cuban State?Socialism. Social Justice Research, 34, 317–341. 
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-021-00372-1

• "Although egalitarian conceptions of social justice at the beginning of the Cuban revolution in the early 1960s still seems to be an important key word of Havana’s official revolutionary rhetoric, there is now a growing ideational emphasis on (economic) performance criteria, material progress, and efficiency. Nina Jany contributes to social justice research by applying and extending conceptions of distributive justice to the Cuban case. Her analysis serves as a reminder that, as equality may be conceptualized in a variety of ways, miscommunication must be avoided by being explicit about the specific (sub)type of equality at hand, be this in state-socialist or market-capitalist contexts. Moreover, the conceptual distinction of actual and just rewards may remind us that any conception of a just distribution (egalitarian or needs-based) is likely to be accompanied by actual unequal outcomes. The results from Nina’s analysis of the Cuban case provide examples of how such inequalities are justified or criticized in both the early 1960s and the 2010s by referring to different (e)valuation patterns."  Congratulations Nina!

  • Kjell Törnblom & Ali Kazemi, Editors-in-Chief, Social Justice Research